2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Sleeping Lady Vineyard
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Tasting notes
What an excellent bottling from this famed vineyard, with lush and supple layers of dark cherries, blueberries, blackberries, earth, dried herbs, flowers and wet stones. The palate is textural and rounded with silken tannins and mouthfeel, with bright acidity that leads into a superbly balanced, fresh and structured finish with many years ahead in bottle, although delicious now. Drink or hold.
Critic scores
Average Score
Antonio Galloni, Vinous
Jeb Dunnuck
More reviews and scores
Gorgeous, pure fruit defines this wine from the outset. Raspberry, red cherry, and blackberry unfold alongside high-toned florals and refined cedarwood spice, with hints of fennel, bay laurel, and bay leaf evoking the scent of a vineyard on a cool, wet day. Crushed rock minerality and dusty stone nuances frame the aromatics, while the mid-palate delivers remarkable fruit purity. Ultra-fine, intricate tannins provide excellent grip without heaviness, carried by bright, vivid acidity that keeps everything lifted and precise. It is an honest, heady wine that quite literally stops you in your tracks, so nuanced and expressive in its finesse and clarity. Another downright gorgeous wine for Chris Phelps.
Coming from the cooler, western side of Yountville in the Sleeping Lady Vineyard, the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Sleeping Lady Vineyard offers a First Growth-like nose of crème de cassis, graphite, freshly sharpened pencils, and spring flowers. Based on 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and aged 18 months in 75% new French oak, it's medium to full-bodied and flawlessly balanced on the palate, with ultra-fine tannins and a great finish. It topped out my scale and will be a 30- to 40-year wine. This is easily the finest vintage I've tasted of this cuvée, and it's as good as anything in the vintage – or the world for that matter. With roughly 300 cases produced, don't miss it.
The 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Sleeping Lady Vineyard is a classy, elegant wine. Crushed flowers, cinnamon, orange peel, pomegranate and dried herbs are same of the notes that grace this classy, polished Cabernet Sauvignon. All the elements are so well balanced. This remains a quintessential wine for Sleeping Lady. Floral and mineral notes lift the refined, exquisite finish. Give this a bit of time to blossom in bottle.
About the producer
Ad Vivum is a tiny Napa project from winemaker Chris Phelps, previously of Dominus and Caymus. Created in 2007, Phelps makes one wine, exclusively from two blocks in the Sleeping Lady vineyard, the southernmost site in Yountville.